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Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan is an American television drama series created by Tim Kring that aired from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007, lasting for six seasons & 117 episodes. Plot The series tells the story of Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The show used an ensemble cast approach that featured a group of Jordan's co-workers and police detectives assigned to the various cases. Its roster of central characters was created by Tim Kring, who also developed its core format. The title refers to both the name of the main character, who is commonly shown as "crossing" others (especially authority figures to learn what she wants to know) and the biblical metaphor of the ancient Hebrews crossing the Jordan River, commonly used in spiritual songs to represent death and passage to the afterlife. During the first two seasons, the series used a gimmick whereby Jordan and her retired police detective father Maximilian "Max" Cavanaugh (Ken Howard) role-play the events leading up to that episode's murder, which were depicted by showing Jordan playing the part of the victim or suspect in a recreation of the scene, the idea being that such role-playing would help Jordan to figure out the circumstances of the crime, like a criminal profiler. This element of the series was mostly dropped when Howard left the series as a regular; however, there were instances of Jordan role-playing with other characters, such as Woody and Macy. Cast Main *Jill Hennessy as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh *Miguel Ferrer as Dr. Garret Macy *Ken Howard as Maximillian "Max" Cavanaugh *Ravi Kapoor as Dr. Mahesh "Bug" Vijayaraghavensatanaryanamurthy *Steve Valentine as Dr. Nigel Townsend *Kathryn Hahn as Lily Lebowski *Steve Valentine as Dr. Nigel Townsend *Lorraine Toussaint as Dr. Elaine Duchamps *Ivan Sergei as Dr. Peter Winslow *Jerry O'Connell as Woodrow "Woody" Hoyt *Leslie Bibb as Tallulah "Lu" Simmons Recurring Cast *Jennifer Finnigan as Dr. Devan Maguire *Eugene Byrd as Dr. Sidney Trumaine *Brooke Smith as Dr. Kate Switzer *D. W. Moffett as Detective Eddie Winslow *Amy Aquino as Detective Lois Carver *David Monahan as Detective Matt Seely *Arija Bareikis as Detective Annie Capra *Sandra Bernhard as Detective Roz Framus *Camille Guaty as Detective Luisa Santana *Boris Kodjoe as Detective Elliot Chandler *Susan Gibney as District Attorney Renee Walcott *Brian Stokes Mitchell as District Attorney Jay Myers *Ethan Sandler as Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Brandau *Jeffrey Donovan as Assistant District William Ivers *Wallace Shawn as Dr. Howard Stiles *Emy Coligado as Emmy *Alex McKenna as Abby Macy *Jack Laufer as Herman Redding *Michael T. Weiss as James Horton *Lesley Ann Warren as Arlene Lebowski *Brian Kimmet as Oliver Titleman *Charles Mesure as J.D. Pollack Seasons overview Production "Crossing Jordan" was created by Tim Kring and was produced by Tailwind Productions in association with NBC Universal. Singer-songwriter duo Wendy and Lisa scored the music for the show. Eric Rigler's pipes and whistles can be heard in most episodes. The scientific aspects of the show are comparable to "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", but Crossing Jordan is more character-driven and less graphic than the CSI franchise. In the first season, Hennessy was the only cast member visible during the opening credits, which featured Eric Rigler's arrangement of a traditional Irish tune "The Boys on the Hilltop" (a quicker tempo, but shorter version of "Reels Part One -- The Boys on the Hilltop" from the Bad Haggis CD Trip). Starting with the second season, the credits showed all the major players and used a more rock-like, less Irish-sounding opening theme. The show is set in the same fictional universe as fellow NBC series, "Las Vegas". In the fourth season episode "What Happens in Vegas Dies in Boston", a case takes Jordan and Woody to Las Vegas, where Woody became very well-acquainted with the Montecito's casino host, Sam Marquez (Vanessa Marcil). They maintained a long-distance relationship for a while: O'Connell appeared in five episodes of "Las Vegas" and Vanessa Marcil appeared as Sam in two "Crossing Jordan" episodes. Broadcast History "Crossing Jordan" premiered in 2001 on NBC. It was originally scheduled to debut on September 11, its launch was pushed back due to the terrorist attacks on that date. It has aired on Monday, Friday, Sunday and finally Wednesday nights for its final episodes. The show was put on hiatus for most of the 2003–2004 season to accommodate Jill Hennessy's real-life pregnancy. The series returned on March 9, 2004, with a shortened 13-episode season. Due to the season being broadcast out of order, the cliffhanger plotline from the season-two finale was aired as the last episode of the season instead of the first; instead, the first featured an unrelated story with a humorous subplot that paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film "Rear Window". A crossover episode of "Las Vegas" (in which the "Crossing Jordan" cast appears )was aired on November 17, 2006, though NBC was not airing new episodes of "Crossing Jordan" in the fall of 2006. Originally, the sixth season was to appear on Sunday nights after the football season ended in January, but it was then scheduled to premiere on October 20, 2006, and to be on Friday nights with "Medium" being put into the after-football Sunday-night slot. It was scheduled to air at 8:00 pm Eastern/Pacific and 7 pm Central/Mountain, but NBC decided to avoid showing scripted programming at that hour. The season premiere was pre-empted in favor of "1 vs. 100", a game show hosted by Bob Saget. The season premiere aired on January 14, 2007, at 10:00 pm Eastern/Pacific and 9 pm Central. Beginning March 7, 2007, the show moved to a new time slot, Wednesday 9/8C where it was promoted as a female empowerment block with "Medium". Cancellation Originally, the finale for the sixth season of "Crossing Jordan" was promoted as a cliff-hanger. A plane crash which left all of the main characters (with the exception of Lily) stranded atop a mountain with little hope of being discovered was reported to end with no resolution, as the story would pick up at the onset of a subsequent season. Once NBC decided against renewing the show for a seventh year, fans were treated to a different ending. Medical examiner Jordan ultimately confronted her held-in feelings for Woody and finally professed her love. Furthermore, all of the characters were rescued in the final moments of the series. The ending provided fuel to rumors that producers recorded two endings to the finale: one in case the series would be renewed, and another in case the series would not be. The show was cancelled on May 14, 2007 (two days before the final episode of the sixth season aired. External links * Crossing Jordan on Fandom * Crossing Jordan on Wikipedia Category:2001 debuts Category:2007 endings Category:NBC TV shows Category:2000s television series Category:Drama Category:Concluded series Category:2001 Category:2002 Category:2003 Category:2004 Category:2005 Category:2006 Category:2007